November 12, 2012
I LOVE SANMIN!!!!!!!! Seriously. I love my new area! Sister King is an all-star and knows every person at church. She knows every street, all the good food places, and best of all she is a really hard worker that loves the Lord. That's the most important one! First I'd like to tell ya'll about some of the differences between the two places. I feel like Zhanghua was the wild wild west... I've now moved into Chicago where the buildings reach as tall as the eye can see. Everyone lives in a dalou (tall skyscraper like apartment building) People's houses are way nicer here. Some have TV's and real doors! Not that Zhanghua had fake doors... but more like slidey things. Another huge difference is the ward here! My companion has worked for months and months to get to REALLY know every person in the ward. She knows everything and everyone and it is so wonderful! In Zhanghua we really focused on investigators and baptisms, which is great... but lacks a vital help from the ward. Here we really focus on strengthening the ward, rescuing less-actives, and having members bring their friends to church to get new investigators. Zhanghua will get there one day, but I'm really excited to be here and learn how to better work with the ward. We spent almost all last week going around, meeting members, less actives, new converts, and really getting to know their stories. We are really focusing on ward activities and are currently planning a wonderful Christmas calendar to help the ward get more involved in missionary work while coming closer to Christ. I'M SO EXCITED FOR CHRISTMAS! Anyways, sorry if this letter is a little scattered, but my brain these days is really scattered. I even wrote a list of things to talk about but I'm just all over the place. Paisei paisei. I'm english leader of our free english class again... which I'm trying to be more excited about haha. 3rd movecall in a row... oh well! I appointed myself beginning class teacher which will be really fun.
Another thing I love about Sister King is that we don't stick to the normal ways of missionary work every single day. Of course we still contact, have lessons, and do all that normal stuff, but she is so creative and has tons of other ways we can accomplish the work. For instance, we are taking newsletters to everyone in the ward about the importance of going to the temple. They made cookies for the seminary class last week. We are taking pineapples to our ward leaders this week. We are putting together this really great Christmas activity (more details once we figure them out) and many more. I'm learning so much from her!
One thing about focusing on the ward is that it leaves us with less lessons and investigators than normal. There are pros and cons to both, but I think this way is helping the church have REAL growth. Perhaps it is not our time to get tons of baptisms and what not here, but baptisms mean nothing if they are not truly converted and don't have a wonderful ward to be nurtured in. Sister King is really helping me see that importance and Sanmin is in a really good place right now. We have 2 wonderful progressing investigators that are working towards baptism. The first is Chen JM. She LOVES the gospel. Loves our message about forever families and is really wanting her whole family to be baptized. She feels a little unprepared, so she still hasn't set a date, but we are just helping her build her faith. She has been to church several times and loves it. I think she fears that her testimony is not as big as some people who have been in the church for a long time. Soon she will come to realize that baptism is between that person and the Lord, nobody else. We are not to compare ourselves with others. As long as we have faith enough to act as God wants us to, that is enough. The second is Wu JM. She is so wonderful!!! She sadly has a husband fandui... so we are kind of at a loss for what to do. He won't let us come over, and usually won't let her come to church. He's extremely controlling and forces her to go bai bai (worship idols and ancestors) When we met with her Saturday, she told us how he made her go with him a few days ago and she just cried. She knows Heavenly Father is not a statue that she needs to give fruit to in order for him to bless her. I ache for her, but also know that God understands the true desires of our hearts. She loves to pray out loud, but her husband won't let her, so she has learned how to pray in English so he doesn't understand and cannot stop her. These wonderful women bless and strengthen my faith each and every day. I learn way more from them than they learn from me. I'll let you know how things go with them.
I really love this work. I'm going to do a better job writing heaps of details, but this is all the time I have today. I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCHHH! If any of you have ideas on how to be a better journaler, please please let me know. You are all in my thoughts and prayers! Angie, I'm so glad you are doing better now!!! I miss you all, SEND ME PICTURES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love, Ally
I LOVE SANMIN!!!!!!!! Seriously. I love my new area! Sister King is an all-star and knows every person at church. She knows every street, all the good food places, and best of all she is a really hard worker that loves the Lord. That's the most important one! First I'd like to tell ya'll about some of the differences between the two places. I feel like Zhanghua was the wild wild west... I've now moved into Chicago where the buildings reach as tall as the eye can see. Everyone lives in a dalou (tall skyscraper like apartment building) People's houses are way nicer here. Some have TV's and real doors! Not that Zhanghua had fake doors... but more like slidey things. Another huge difference is the ward here! My companion has worked for months and months to get to REALLY know every person in the ward. She knows everything and everyone and it is so wonderful! In Zhanghua we really focused on investigators and baptisms, which is great... but lacks a vital help from the ward. Here we really focus on strengthening the ward, rescuing less-actives, and having members bring their friends to church to get new investigators. Zhanghua will get there one day, but I'm really excited to be here and learn how to better work with the ward. We spent almost all last week going around, meeting members, less actives, new converts, and really getting to know their stories. We are really focusing on ward activities and are currently planning a wonderful Christmas calendar to help the ward get more involved in missionary work while coming closer to Christ. I'M SO EXCITED FOR CHRISTMAS! Anyways, sorry if this letter is a little scattered, but my brain these days is really scattered. I even wrote a list of things to talk about but I'm just all over the place. Paisei paisei. I'm english leader of our free english class again... which I'm trying to be more excited about haha. 3rd movecall in a row... oh well! I appointed myself beginning class teacher which will be really fun.
Another thing I love about Sister King is that we don't stick to the normal ways of missionary work every single day. Of course we still contact, have lessons, and do all that normal stuff, but she is so creative and has tons of other ways we can accomplish the work. For instance, we are taking newsletters to everyone in the ward about the importance of going to the temple. They made cookies for the seminary class last week. We are taking pineapples to our ward leaders this week. We are putting together this really great Christmas activity (more details once we figure them out) and many more. I'm learning so much from her!
One thing about focusing on the ward is that it leaves us with less lessons and investigators than normal. There are pros and cons to both, but I think this way is helping the church have REAL growth. Perhaps it is not our time to get tons of baptisms and what not here, but baptisms mean nothing if they are not truly converted and don't have a wonderful ward to be nurtured in. Sister King is really helping me see that importance and Sanmin is in a really good place right now. We have 2 wonderful progressing investigators that are working towards baptism. The first is Chen JM. She LOVES the gospel. Loves our message about forever families and is really wanting her whole family to be baptized. She feels a little unprepared, so she still hasn't set a date, but we are just helping her build her faith. She has been to church several times and loves it. I think she fears that her testimony is not as big as some people who have been in the church for a long time. Soon she will come to realize that baptism is between that person and the Lord, nobody else. We are not to compare ourselves with others. As long as we have faith enough to act as God wants us to, that is enough. The second is Wu JM. She is so wonderful!!! She sadly has a husband fandui... so we are kind of at a loss for what to do. He won't let us come over, and usually won't let her come to church. He's extremely controlling and forces her to go bai bai (worship idols and ancestors) When we met with her Saturday, she told us how he made her go with him a few days ago and she just cried. She knows Heavenly Father is not a statue that she needs to give fruit to in order for him to bless her. I ache for her, but also know that God understands the true desires of our hearts. She loves to pray out loud, but her husband won't let her, so she has learned how to pray in English so he doesn't understand and cannot stop her. These wonderful women bless and strengthen my faith each and every day. I learn way more from them than they learn from me. I'll let you know how things go with them.
I really love this work. I'm going to do a better job writing heaps of details, but this is all the time I have today. I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCHHH! If any of you have ideas on how to be a better journaler, please please let me know. You are all in my thoughts and prayers! Angie, I'm so glad you are doing better now!!! I miss you all, SEND ME PICTURES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love, Ally
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